Painting

2007 holds the count for 22 satellite art fairs that are taking place addition to Art Basel Miami Beach. Sensory overload is a luxury. Art fairs certainly provides an insight to trends in painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, installation, photography, video and performance. In addition to trends in mediums, it also allows you to see art from a multitude of cities around the world. An absolute treat!

Some of the trends in medium were intricate ink and graphite drawings, flashe paint, animation, collage, cutouts. In terms of sculpture, porcelain, taxidermy, felt and found objects. Some booths were also dedicated to a single artist. This year, the galleries really stepped up and presented very well curated open cubes.

Jill Dryer is a BAP member artist based in Chicago. She recently left her day job of
16 years to pursue her art full-time. Her acrylics on canvas pieces are various types of animals that one would see in back country. From flying fish to elk, these creatures have a curious and reverent encounter with the likes of Eames, Calder, and Wegner to name a few.Her inspiration comes from
great design, nature and people who do what they love. Dryer's latest works is called, "Design Meets Nature". This is a series of paintings will be featured in
the spring 2008 at an exhibit at the Design Within Reach store in downtown
Chicago. Her holiday card design "Trees of the Architects" is
being featured in three international fashion/design magazines this
holiday season (Hong Kong, Turkey and the Ukraine). The Orange
County Art Musuem is carrying some of her "Eames" prints this fall
during a midcentury modern exhibit called "Birthplace of the Cool".

What really goes on behind the scenes at the OTB? John Gagliano has created a new body of work of characters he has met, observed, befriended and loathed. Heightened euphoria, fear and despair are all welcome at the OTB. As the curator, I decided to step into the world of OTB and interview him about his new series.

Joyce Manalo (JM): Where are you from originally? Have you moved around the country at all?

John Gagliano (JG): Floral Park, New York... a suburb a few steps from queens. Oh and Iceman from the X-men was born there too. I have never lived outside the city for more than a few weeks, but New York is dead to me and I would very much like to relocate in the near future.

JM: I didn't know that Floral Park had a celebrity status. Okay, back to New York, NY, you have a BFA from FIT with a major in illustration and minor in graphic design, currently painting and the art director at Unruly Heir. Do you think it makes you less of an artist having a job?

JG: The thing about New York is you really do need to have one or more jobs depending on your wage in order to live here. No, I don't think being an artist and having a job damages my credibility at all. Being an artist isn't just something you do to pass the time, you have to put everything you have into it... and before you do all that you have to pay the rent. With Unruly Heir I'm actually able to experiment with ideas and mediums that are new to me. I'm learning a ton and if anything working there only develops new directions and opportunities for my art. I also work five nights a week at Off Track Betting. Is my art-cred taking a nosedive?

JM: I don't see any arrows pointing down. What is Unruly Heir?

JG: Unruly Heir is a new menswear label... like Ralph Lauren, after scuffing your khakis and huffing gasoline. It really is quite amazing to me how quickly we came from nowhere, we were the long-shot a total dark horse from the get go. When I first got involved in Oct. 2006, I was extremely skeptical at first. After a few months the company started to take shape and I realized I was working with some talented people. Angelina the fashion designer has a relentless work ethic, she's the glue that keeps us all on the same page, and Kristian Laliberte has been a liability for us. Then the founder Joey Goodwin has this outlandish magnetic persona and you can't help but find yourself knee deep in his modest vision.

JM: How did you come up with the idea for "All Bets Are Off" series?

JG: All Bets are Off is only a small smudge on my complete vision for OTB. As I said before, I work for Off Track Betting, I'm the bookie behind the bulletproof glass. This month was the five year mark of my employment. Within the first few hours of working there I knew right away this story must be told. Bukowski touched on it often, but I knew I could tell it differently being a visual artist, and working in the industry instead of being a frequent patron. It took me a few years just to understand the complexity of the OTB lifestyle but soon after I began working on the novel "Suspect Superfecta". I've dedicated the last two and half painting years to this project and "All Bets are Off" is just a preview of its completion.

JM: Very exciting, I look forward to seeing more pieces. The context of your paintings are derivations of circumstances at OTB. Are you painting from photographs, memory or life?

JG: It's a mix of all three. I often draw at work with just a pen and any paper lying around. That's really my favorite way to capture the action. I create all of my compositions from my memory and imagination, a lot of my art are exaggerations of the actual truth but are just as close to the reality. I spend a lot of time writing down quotes heard at work and I enjoy spinning my art off that monotonous banter. I use photos for reference to paint from, but I use some of my friends or anyone willing to pose for me as models to better tell the story. I then recreate those OTB experiences through my friends.

JM: The characters you painted seem to be abject, isolated, and manic. Which artists have influenced you in conveying emotions through brush stroke and color?

JG: Ralph Steadman and David Hockney. These guys are amazing to me.

JM: The themes of your paintings are very much about addiction. Were you consciously making a statement by painting these scenes?

JG: Well the thing about horse racing and addiction is the industry wouldn't survive if only occasional bettors played the Triple Crown and Breeders Cup. Horse Racing is about the regulars. The question is are the regulars addicted to gambling or just hanging out for the action? This is just scratching the surface but addiction in general is a troubling thought, addiction in gambling is a gross misconduct. The Racing Fans I know are not all bad lost people, many are retired old men spending their pension and passing the time. In many ways it is a social club. There's another half that have lost all control, most are younger and not yet retired, but being an OTB regular, rich or poor is a never ending...quandary, they are there opening to closing. They are at OTB more than I am. The difference is some have a thirst for gambling you can only find in night of the living dead.

JM: Do you have any advice for first time betters at OTB?

JG: First time at OTB... well if you don't turn right around and leave...(1) The second horse never runs second. Meaning the second favorite usually doesn't end up finishing second. (2) Read the names of the horses, some full time gamblers do some don't, but first timers seem to have a good feeling about a horse's name. Remember this only works once. Horses that are named in likeness of cats always have a better chance of winning, just be sure to make cat noises while the race is going on. (3) Play your area code.

ArtForward focuses on unconventional collaborations with the art community and business ventures outside the visual arts, to elevate emerging artists and their works to the forefront. It is deeply rooted in working with local art councils, artist studios, alternative spaces, galleries, auction houses and contemporary museums to widen the channels for exhibition opportunities and cooperative projects in tandem with dispersing appreciation in the arts.

Unruly Heir represents an emerging lifestyle driven by an attitude that demands and instigates change where change is rarely accepted or appreciated. Unruly Heir crashes the party of formulated men's sportswear "classics" providing a new and subtle take on men's fashion.

Posted by Joyce Manalo // New York City based Brooklyn Art Project Blog Editor and Founder of ArtForward

Brooklyn Art Project Member name Kerst Cobain (tsrekone) Male United States

First Name Kerst

Last Name Cobain

Sex Male

Age 25-34

Which of the following best describe you? Painter

What city are you in? NY

What country? US

How often are you the first among your friends to try something new? Very often

Would you be interested in re-mixing your art with other artists? Yes

What do you want people to know about you? I am a New York born artist. I am a mixed media painter although not always. I use spray paint, acrylic, paint marker, pastels, charcoal, house paint and anything else i can possibly put to work. I show regularly with the Antagonist Art Movement in the East Village. The shows are every thursday. www.myspace.com/kerstcobain3095

This powerful piece was recently uploaded by NYC based brooklynartproject.com member Jerome Podwil (AKA ZOOBLOO). His work is hauntingly inviting with an ethereal quality. Check out his member page to see his other work, "self portrait with muse" is equally intriguing.

First Name jerome

Last Name podwil

Sex Male

Age 65+

Which of the following best describe you? Illustrator, Painter

What city are you in? nyc

What country? usa

How often are you the first among your friends to try something new? Very often

Well folks it's officially that time of year again. The 11th Annual Art Under the Bridge Festival officially gets underway this Friday, September 28th through Sunday, September 30 here in Brooklyn, New York.

Dumbo Arts Center, the Festival’s Producer is anticipating over 150,000 visitors again this year. Sixty new art works will be scattered throughout the neighborhood, while 158 private studios will open to the public. Exhibitions will run in sixteen different venues.

The hood's already buzzing with art galleries filling every last space and a palpable sense of creative preparation in the air. The event is the single largest urban forum for experimental art in the United States, transforming this distinctive waterfront neighborhood of DUMBO into a multi-sensory public art arena.

Brooklyn Art Project is a proud sponsor of the 11th Annual Art Under
the Bridge Festival. We'll be opening our studios to the public during
the festival and featuring the work of select members to be announced
this week as well as the three winning submissions from our Battle for
Brooklyn where members submitted 100 entries then voted which would go
on to show in Brooklyn. Winners included Stool Nude - By Raphe, Hello Friend by John W. Golden, and New Ballard Fashion, by Jane Yohnson.

///// VOLUNTEERS NEEDEDIf you're an artist, a great way to get out there and network is to volunteer for the event. Dumbo Arts Center is still accepting volunteers so if you're interested call them ASAP at 718.694.0831 or via email at gallery@dumboartscenter.org.

///// 2007 FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

MOST POPULAR 2007 ARTIST THEME - GREEN

If the pick of each year is a barometer of the prevailing cultural climate, then the GREEN theme probably wins for 2007, manifest both in the use of recycled materials and eco-conscious strategies.

* In a performance piece titled Transform Jackson Martin breathes new life into a pick-up truck, reincarnated as a mobile greenhouse.

* Chicken Invasion '07 is a metaphor for the stigmatization of immigrants, where Alfonso Munoz recycles plastic bags and bottles to fabricate the chickens.

* Eve Mosher's High Water Line draws attention to global warming in a projected flood mark drawn in chalk along the Brooklyn Waterfront.

* Smudge Studio explores the aesthetics and efficiency of sustainability with The Poetics of Night Soil, an interactive art piece consisting of a functional outdoor composting toilet.

* Myk Henry and Cynthia Ruse encourage festival-goers to waltz along a lush grass sidewalk and on Sunday afternoon, take a sod-to-go for planting at home.

* Independent curator, Aniko Erdosi curates, Remarks from Yesterday for Tomorrow, a group show of young Hungarians at 111 Front Street, which includes a recycling station, where visitors can create their own handbag or notebook from used fruit juice cartons and street ad vinyl.

OTHER 2007 POPULAR ARTIST THEMES - SEX / IDENTITY / GENDERRunning a close second to the theme of GREEN, issues of SEX, IDENTITY and GENDER surface in other projects.

* Dumbo Arts Center hosts Sex in the City, a group exhibition by independent curator, Dean Daderko. In conjunction with the gallery show, Daderko presents, Third Sex-y, in the loading dock of 45 Main Street: an evening of debauchery, celebratory, revelatory, queer uproar and mixed media mélange of video, performance, poetry and full-on entertainment from a surprise cast.

* At 111 Front Street, independent curator, Felicity Hogan, will present Rashaad Newsome and Duran Jackson, two artists whose common denominator is an exploration of black identity in popular culture and contemporary society. Using performance, installation, video and digital technology, both artists harness the language of gesture, choreographed actors and specific use of male and female performers.

* With Party Dress in the Brooklyn Bridge Park, Dana and Karla Karwas show how a party dress is meant to be worn: waist-clinching, corseted gowns, monumental in scale, with skirts so vast they provide a tent for a chamber music ensemble. The music pavilion is "worn" by six women, seamlessly injecting architecture into fashion in its use of body as space. Step under the skirts, taste a sweet cupcake and enjoy the music...

MORE PICKS:

* Visitors can hop on a water taxi at the Fulton Ferry Landing and travel as far as the Manhattan Bridge and back to enjoy long-running favorite, Project Glo, art works, which illuminate the East River waterfront. After sparkling success in 2006, chandelier artist, NATSU, returns to outdo the Manhattan skyline with thousands of sequins.

* Watch out for members of Caitlin Berrigan's Smelling Committee, who have to make their way blindfold through Dumbo via nothing, but their sense of smell in a new category we're calling the Conceptual Tour Guide.

* Numerous Simultaneous Projections will be lighting up the night on facades in Dumbo. Public art collaborative, Illegal Art, mastermind of the recent highly popular interactive Post-It project on Front Street, will present a new project, which invites Dumbo residents and visitors to participate in discovering the value of the neighborhood's past, present and future as an active and creative community.

* In a live presentation by international artist Vitaly Komar, co-founder (with Alex Melamid) of an elephant art academy in Thailand, the fresh-out-of-art school elephant, Dondi, swings her massive trunk and demonstrates her artistic prowess (sponsored by Two Trees Management Inc.)

* For more international exotic flavor, The Hungarian Cultural Center challenges national and international artists to interpret Hungary's national dish, Stuffed Cabbage, at street vendor style carts along Water Street.

VIDEO_DUMBO FESTIVAL

* At 81 Front Street, Caspar Stracke and Gabriella Monroy, present a new showcase of cutting edge, contemporary video art including a special program from Seoul and Pusan, South Korea and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

OPEN STUDIOS

* Saturday, Sept. 29th and Sunday, Sept. 30th, 1:00-6:00 pm: hundreds of artists welcome the public into their studio spaces to get a behind the scenes look at the old factory buildings, where artists have been flourishing for decades. Smack Mellon will feature seven current Artists-in-Residence in their recently relocated basement studios.

* Triangle Arts Association will be celebrating its 25th anniversary with an Alumni Exhibition, including artists dating as far back as the organization's inception in 1982.

* Jane's Carousel: Saturday, September 29 and Sunday, September 30, noon-4 pm: Jane Walentas' fully-restored 48-horse carousel, constructed in 1922 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company and unveiled at last year's festival, will be operating again this year. All rides @ $1.00. Proceeds will be generously donated to the Dumbo Arts Center.

We're proud to announce long time Brooklyartproject.com member Travis Lindquist, is having a show here in Brooklyn from September 7 – 23, 2007 at Capla Kesting Fine Art at 121 Roebling Street (corner of North 5th). Via subway it's on the Bedford Ave L train Stop. The show is open to the public Thursdays – Mondays from Noon until 6:00 pm.

The gallery's press release for the show reads as follows:

To commence the fall season, Capla Kesting Fine Art turns its gallery over to the deeply expressive artworks of Travis Lindquist, whose second solo exhibition with our gallery is aptly titled: Times Like this One. This latest collection, a series of iconic paintings and works on paper, are mostly portraits of lesser known public figures whose influence on our society still resonate, though their images have been forgotten.

In his portraiture Travis chooses subjects with broad global social status, drawing inspiration from England's royal family, Soviet revolutionaries and pioneers of the women’s suffrage movement.

Appropriation art and use of the found object, continuing themes in Travis’ paintings, are prevalent again in this new collection, a body of work that has taken almost 4 years to complete. Material comes from mundane artifacts discovered in Travis’ everyday routine.

Receipts, discarded to-do lists, and photographs exposed while studying books, sidewalk sales and friends' libraries are found objects appropriated and used to complete Travis’ artworks. “There is something about the energy of lists that I love. The truest inspiration for me comes from objects that approach me, things I find in the chaos of the everyday. Otherwise the artwork seems contrived and untrue to my process.”

Travis’ portraits begin with a highly developed underpaintings relying on deeply expressive colors, aggressive brushstrokes, and smooth translucent washes. Paintings are then further developed with text, carefully chosen fonts and passages from diaries or stories about the character, and placed to build the relationship between the figure and its environment. “These portraits are about appreciating every moment and seeing through reality. When people see through the superficial and just appreciate every moment of being alive, then aturmoil that has gone unnoticed is brought to light.”

Founded in October of 2003 by David Kesting and Lincoln Capla, Capla Kesting Fine Art has become synonymous with the exposure of underground artists. Created primarily as a venue to expose the work of their talented group of friends CKFA has developed a reputation fortheir off the beaten path approach to advancing the public’s knowledge of premier talents that demand our attention.

“We’re not here making a statement. We’re just showing art we think deserves to be shown. The goal and whole idea of the place is to help bring artists that we respect and enjoy tothe attention of the public.” – Capla Kesting Fine Art.

Directions: Bedford Ave L train Stop. Exit the subway walking west on North 7th, away from river, 2 blocks to Roebling, then proceed south 2 blocks to North 5th. The gallery is located on the corner of North 5th and Roeblin. See the google map.

An active, and extremely talented member of Brooklyn Art Project member, Kim McCarthy (AKA Urban Soule) has recently uploaded several more paintings to peruse. Many of her of which are available on her website http://soule5675.mosaicglobe.com/ for purchase.Definitely a smart investment as far as we're concerned.

Kim McCarthy (Soule5675) 32, Female United States

Sex Female

Age 25-34

Which of the following best describe you? Illustrator, Painter, Photographer

What city are you in? Seattle

What country? USA

How often are you the first among your friends to try something new? Very often

Would you be interested in re-mixing your art with other artists? Yes

What do you want people to know about you? Kim McCarthy aka SOULE was born and raised in Washington State. Growing up in the sticks and later living in the city she developed a taste for urban street art such as wheat pasted posters and flyer's, stickers, stencils, murals and spray painted graffiti. Meeting new friends and seeing many bands, the "underground" and "outsider" art became part of her life. Having her first solo art show at the age of sixteen gave a new meaning to being an artist, selling almost all her paintings, she realized the potential in becoming a professional artist. Using mainly spray paint, stencils and ink as mediums she would create images on almost any printable surface she could find. Later, learning how to silkscreen her stencils she started making and selling clothing online and at street fairs.

She moved to the Oregon coast about six years ago and since, Kim has had some great creative forces working with her. She has had numerous solo and group exhibits through out Washington and Oregon. Using the same mediums, having a short attention span, plenty of ideas and learning new techniques, has created many products such as clothing, housewares, paintings, prints, sculptures and toys. She also writes the Art Gallery reviews for the Astoria Review Magazine, which covers Art and Events around the Pacific Northwest. She now lives and creates her work in Seattle.

If you happen to be in the NYC area this evening, you'll should definitely come by the opening for Jennie Booth's new show "2 to the Nth Power" that goes until September 30th. Jennie is a brooklynartproject.com member with a signature style and layers of meaning to her work. She plays at the intersection of art, mathematics and neuroscience creating a visually compelling canvas that resonates on many levels.

We caught up with Jennie to learn more about the show, her inspirations and her journey from Chicago to pre-gentrified Williamsburg Brooklyn.

--Working with the thought that one can travel literally and metaphorically from the ocean to the desert in a matter of minutes.

What does 2 to the Nth power mean?

The title is taken from a painting in the show called "2 The Nth Power. " Originally a mathematical term, it is used to mean the ultimate incalculable something---so I ‘m talking here about the ultimate power of the brain—how we use it (if we use it) and how it uses us as humans. There's that play and struggle between intellectual (logical) and emotional thinking. We are the sum of intricate electrical impulses in the brain--and then there is "the heart"

Can you tell us a little bit about your work?

My work is iconographic and narrative. The figures and symbols are multi-layered in possible meaning. One person could see a devil where the other person sees a god. It is meant to be a primal, universal language where an artist or non-artist viewer, a viewer from say, Kerala, India or Bremen, Germany or Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, could each find a personal language and solution to the visual puzzle.

What inspires you as an artist?

The machinations of the brain. The mind as vehicle or driver. The razor’s edge reality between life and death. -- And then let’s talk politics--gender, color, and class. It’s all there.

Have you always been based in NYC?

I was originally in Chicago and participated in the Pilsen, Wicker Park art scene. Incredibly, a rent hike in Wicker Park was the catalyst for moving to NYC—but I got in on the Williamsburg thing back when you could get off the Bedford L stop and be one of five or six people. Artists are being squeezed out from all the NYC boroughs. I wonder, does culture have a place if it doesn’t have $currency$?